Let’s turn it over to Conor Dougherty, a technology reporter based in the Bay Area.

When tenants started collecting signatures to expand rent control in Silicon Valley earlier this year, organizers knew that they were in for a tough political fight with landlords. Now, with the election fast approaching, that fight is heating up.

On Thursday, tenant activists gathered outside the Hayward regional office of the California Apartment Association, a trade group for landlords, to protest what they describe as a deceptive mailer that the association sent out to urge voters to reject the various rent control measures on the state’s November ballot.

The mailer in question was emblazoned with the logo of California’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, causing groups favoring rent control to charge the C.A.A. with “impersonating” a government agency. Organizers said they plan to file complaints with the California Fair Political Practices Commission.

Tom Bannon, chief executive of the association, said, “We stand by the mail piece that we put out.”

Jason Sisney, chief deputy legislative analyst at the Legislative Analyst’s Office, said voters had contacted his office about the mailers but had no other comment. “Our office does not take positions on local ballot measures,” he said in an email.

Whatever comes of the complaint, tenants are at a significant disadvantage. Landlords have raised just over $1 million to defeat rent control measures that are now on the ballot in a half-dozen cities including Mountain View, Burlingame, San Mateo, Richmond and Alameda.

“The California Apartment Association is spending between five and 10 times what the tenants groups are spending,” said Rob Pyers, research director for the California Target Book, which tracks elections in the state.

Even if these rent control drives are defeated, the growing furor over housing costs is unlikely to go away. The Bay Area may have the dubious distinction of being California’s most unaffordable rental market, but Los Angeles and San Diego are not far behind, according to Zillow. There are already budding tenant movements in Long Beach and San Diego.

Aimee Inglis, acting director of Tenants Together, a statewide group helping coordinate the various rent control drives, said the November election would go a long way toward determining if the movement starts spreading around the state.

“People are kind of watching, and waiting to see what happens, and I don’t think it’s necessary for all of these measures to win,” she said. “If we get one or two, and I think that’s entirely likely, we will be able to build from that.”

And Finally ...

Just as they do every year, California trees have been breaking out in spectacular hues of crimson and gold since September.

If they aren’t noticed, it’s because more of the state’s residents tend to live near the temperate coastline, said John Poimiroo, a travel writer who runs the website californiafallcolor.com.

“It doesn’t happen there,” he said. “It happens in the mountains.”

In contrast to New England, where the shades of autumn roll like a wave from north to south, California’s colors begin at about 10,000 feet in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and descend gradually by elevation.

In the last few days, the fall foliage line has been between about 7,000 and 8,000 feet, Mr. Poimiroo said.

Even if the yearslong drought has caused trees to put on less vivid displays in some places, leaf spotters have been reporting color across the state.

“Everything, everywhere” is peaking in Mono County on the east side of the Sierra Nevada, Alicia Vennos, the county’s economic development director, reported on Wednesday. Further south, in the San Bernardino Mountains, the black oak, bigleaf maple and aspen trees were starting to pop with orange and lime green, spotters said.

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Convict Lake, in the Sherwin Range of the Sierra Nevada.CreditDarrell Sano

Asked to name his favorite autumn destination, Mr. Poimiroo hesitated, then called it a nearly impossible question.